Revealed: Nanny got visa in 19 days

David Blunkett faces new questions today with the revelation that an application for UK residency by his lover's Filipina nanny was mysteriously speeded up.

Kimberly Quinn has accused the Home Secretary of 'fast tracking' the visa application and he admits taking papers on her case to his office to be inspected by two senior civil servants.

He has categorically denied intervening in any way or putting pressure on officials processing the application.

However, the Mail can reveal that the nanny, Leoncia 'Luz' Casalme, was at first informed by the Home Office that the application could take up to a year to process.

Yet the visa guaranteeing her permanent residency was approved and her passport stamped just 19 days later.

The fallout from the three-year affair between Mr Blunkett and Mrs Quinn has become increasingly bitter as he fights for access to her two-year-old son William - who is believed to be the Home Secretary's child - and the baby she is expecting in early February. With Mrs Quinn's damaging claim that Mr Blunkett abused his ministerial office to help rush through the visa, this new disclosure heaps fresh pressure on the beleaguered minister.

Home Office documents seen by the Mail will form a pivotal part of the inquiry by former Treasury adviser Sir Alan Budd into the potentially damning claims.

For they appear to raise serious questions about

the version of events supplied by Mr Blunkett's officials when the political storm broke at the weekend.

The nanny, who arrived from Jordan in July 1999, was automatically entitled to apply to remain indefinitely after four years working in this country.

Home Office rules state that a foreign worker employed as a nanny must renew their visa annually but after four years is entitled to residency.

Covering letter

The four-year rule would have meant that she was entitled to residency in July 2003, but in fact it was approved more than ten weeks before this time elapsed.

Sources close to the Quinn family said that in April 2003 Miss Casalme downloaded an application form from the Home Office website and, after completing it, showed it to her employer.

Mr Blunkett's lover then provided a covering letter confirming that the nanny was still employed to look after William.

Both documents - and the nanny's Philippines passport - were sent to the immigration offices in Croydon.

Weeks later, officials in the Home Office's Integrated Casework Directorate despatched a reply, dated April 23, informing her that the application 'has been accepted as valid'.

The letter warned that 'because of the high intake of applications and backlog of work' there would be a lengthy delay.

It continued: 'The waiting period for these cases is about 12 months at the moment. We are doing all we can to reduce it and on current performance we estimate that your application will be decided by January 2004.'

Holiday to Ireland

Friends of Mrs Quinn say she had wanted the nanny to accompany her, her husband Stephen and William on a holiday to Ireland in August 2003.

The fact that the nanny's passport and visa application were with the immigration service meant she would be unable to go.

It is understood that the nanny handed the letter to Mrs Quinn who apparently kept it for the next 24 hours before handing it back to her.

It is not known what she did with the letter but it was revealed this week that Mrs Quinn told a friend in an e-mail that 'David (Blunkett) fast-tracked' it.

In less than three weeks, Miss Casalme had received her passport and visa. A two-page letter from the Home Office to the nanny, dated May 12 and signed by O Osifodunrin, said: 'I am writing to say that there are no longer any restrictions on the period for which you may remain in the UK.'

In bold type, it proclaimed: You can now remain indefinitely in the United Kingdom.'

Raft of other claims

What Sir Alan Budd will now want to know is what, if any, part the Home Secretary played in the extraordinary about-turn by immigration officials over the length of time it would take.

Although the nanny's visa application is the only allegation being investigated, Mr Blunkett faced a raft of other claims at the weekend.

They included the misuse of civil servants at a meeting with his lover, claims that 'pillow talk' led him to share confidential security information with her, giving his lover two first-class rail tickets, and using government transport to drive her to his Derbyshire home.

According to friends of 44-year-old Mrs Quinn, who was yesterday in hospital said to be suffering from stress, she told them that Mr Blunkett's assistance with the visa application occurred in the 'spring of 2003'.

Confronted with Mrs Quinn's allegations at the weekend, the Home Secretary's office first said: "Kimberly asked David Blunkett for his advice on whether the application was in good order. He said it was. It did not go through his office and she (Miss Casalme) submitted it herself."

They later amended their explanation to: "Kimberly's nanny was about to apply for some sort of leave to remain in Britain. Kimberly asked David Blunkett for his advice on whether the application was in good order.

"David took it with him to the Home Office and said to his principal private secretary (Jonathan Sedgwick) and his deputy (Gareth Redmond), 'I have got a piece of paper in my pocket, what does it say?' One of them may well have read it to him and looked it over. There is nothing unusual in this."

Controversy

Mr Blunkett's advisers differ on what happened to the application next. One said that the Home Secretary 'put it into the system' himself. But, shortly afterwards, a senior figure corrected that version, saying he "gave it back to Kimberly and she then applied and it was processed by the Immigration Service in the normal way. The allegation that he fast-tracked the application is untrue."

Last night Miss Casalme declined to comment. Now working for another family, she is fully entitled to be in Britain with full residency rights but it is the speed that her application was granted that has fanned the controversy.

Chris Randall, UK national coordinator of the Elena group of human rights and asylum lawyers, said that in his experience the Home Office granted indefinite leave to remain only after precisely 48 months of someone legitimately working in Britain.

Asked if he thought there had been some irregularity, he said: 'Certainly it is unusual.'

Two leading immigration lawyers said it did appear that the visa had been issued many weeks earlier than normal.

They said some limited discretion was built into the system. But, tellingly, that can be exercised only by Ministers and very senior civil servants. A senior spokesman for the Home Secretary refused to comment on the revelations.

"I think I have to say that Sir Alan Budd is going to be conducting an inquiry and no doubt he will interview everyone he deems fit to be interviewed," said the spokesman. "He will do a full and detailed job and I think it is right to leave it all to him."